Evolving attitudes about marijuana among the majority of Americans, as well as decriminalization laws starting to sweep the nation, have done little to quell questions about the health effects of longtime use among medical professionals, lawmakers, and people on both sides of an ongoing debate about the plant.

Even with a dearth of research, the general consensus in past decades has been that smoking marijuana regularly poses significant health risks. A new study out of Emory University in Atlanta, however, could challenge what has become the fundamental argument for maintaining the plant’s designation as a Schedule 1 drug.

Mali's minister of health has declared the country free of the Ebola virus after 42 days passed without a new case.

"Since December 6, 2014, the date on which the last inpatient at the treatment center in Bamako was tested negative, no other confirmed cases of illness from Ebola virus have been recorded in our country," Ousmane Kone said in a statement.

"Also, after 42 days of surveillance without confirmed cases of illness from Ebola virus, in accordance with the guidelines of international health regulations, I declare this day, January 18, 2015, the end of the epidemic of Ebola virus in Mali."

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a 2-year-old legal challenge to a central provision of ObamaCare from a conservative doctors group.

The case, which was led by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, sought to strike down the law’s individual mandate, which fines individuals who fail to purchase health insurance.The plaintiffs’ argument had been rejected twice before: first by a district court judge in 2012 and then by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2014.

“How could we create a space in which the only permission a woman needs is her own?”

That’s the question Dr. Rebecca Gomperts poses at the beginning of Vessel, a new documentary that follows her work sailing around the world to teach women how to safely use abortion-inducing drugs. Nearly 15 years ago, Gomperts took to the sea in search of that space for the women who lack reproductive health options.

Scientists have discovered a new class of antibiotic using a revolutionary procedure hailed as a game changer in the hunt for medicines to fight drug-resistant infections. The antibiotic, called teixobactin, kills a wide range of drug-resistant bacteria, including MRSA and bugs that cause TB and a host of other life-threatening infections.

It could become a powerful weapon in the battle against antimicrobial resistance, because it kills microbes by blocking their capacity to build their cell walls, making it extremely difficult for bacteria to evolve resistance.

Alzheimer's could be prevented and even cured by boosting the brain's own immune response, scientists at Stanford University believe.

Researchers discovered that nerve cells die because cells which are supposed to clear the brain of bacteria, viruses and dangerous deposits, stop working.These cells, called 'microglia' function well when people are young, but when they age, a single protein called EP2 stops them operating efficiently.